Over Thanksgiving Washington D.C. homies Erik Mingo and Daniel McDonald were back in town for the first time that I’ve seen them in a while. Daniel and Ming shot a dope little freeride video worth a watch. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Ed Garner, who we’ve posted a few times before, set his car cam up and got down on a mountain run, presumably somewhere out in PA where he’s currently attending college. Ed is an all around east coast ripper who has been ripping it in Maryland/Washington D.C. and steadily making a name for himself up and down the coast. Make sure you remember where you started seeing him first, because this kid is bound to be real big real soon!

Ed Garner, reppin’ Team Doggied-Out, kills it on his double kick in his new video. Ed’s got some sick style, pushing it a little bit out of his comfort zone and thats dope. You can tell that Ed is hustlin’ his skating faster and is really skating at the top of his ability. This kind of shit gets me stoked, a fellow Eastcoaster doing shit the way he wants to do it and not taking crap from nobody. Respect. Check his video out, you won’t regret it..

While this is long overdue I felt like I still had to get around to posting it. If you haven’t heard by now the Washington D.C./Metro Area Kickoff Slide Jam went down last Saturday in, surprise surprise, Washington D.C. Despite the sour weather the event didn’t disappoint at all and organizers Billy DaisyCutter Jackle and Liam Hayes did a great job keeping things flowing well, even as the morning got off to a slow start.

All in all over 100 skaters showed up to shred the hill, taking advantage of the wet pavement to bust out some long and technical slides that might not have otherwise been possible had the pavement been dry. Local area skater and Landyachtz team rider John Kreutter was at the event repping in full force as was Push Culture’s Travis Davenport, and our very own Henry Goguen. The rest of the Landyachtz team ended up showing up (albeit a few hours late thanks to traffic and whatnot on their trip in from PennState University), although it was after we had to leave the competition which I was pretty bummed about. Fortunately some good pictures are starting to surface and they’ll have some video from the event on their next episode of their East CoastUniversity Tour.

As we mentioned in the original post there were sponsors galore and lots of winners, check out the results below:Softwheel:

There’s a high chance you heard a lot about the university tour Landyachtz embarked on over the fall/ beginning of winter and kept asking yourself, “Man why aren’t they doing this out East?” Well folks, good news: they are. Yes, you heard me, Landyachtz is headed East to spread the stoke and will be making appearances up and down (but mostly down) the East Coast. Check the schedule below to find out if they’ll be at a university/college near you and when. Unfortunately if you’re in the New England you’re out of luck unless you’re willing to trek down to the Tri-State area or Mid-Atlantic, which might be worth your while with some of the events popping off down there.

We’re pumped that they’ll be shredding and helping to judge at the Washington D.C. Kickoff Jam which looks like it’ll be off the hook. It’s something you should try to get to if you can, as of right now I’m planning on making the trip down and have heard the same from many others.

I also heard that they’ll be judging at the UNC Longboard Club’s Splendiferous Slide Jam that’s going down on the 31st, giving North Carolina students an extra day to chill with the Landy crew. We’ll have more info on the jam going down at UNC later.

Check the dates below for your chance to meet and shred with some of the guys from Landyachtz while they’re touring the East! Let’s show them a good time and prove that the East Coast holds their own no matter what.

Fresh off our interview and video with John Kruetter (who literally took the interwebs by storm this past week) I figured it’s the perfect time to make sure everyone knows about the Washington D.C./Metro Area Season Kickoff Slide Jam (talk about a long title) going down on March 24th. They just recently announced the location as Spring of Freedom Lane, NW in Washington, D.C. (the Czech Embassy is at the top of the hill). While I don’t know much about D.C. I have a feeling that with Billy “Daisy Cutter” Jackle as one of the organizers people won’t be disappointed. Oh yeah, and they’ll have a kicker to hit!

The event looks like it’ll be a lot of fun and a really laid back atmosphere with a lot of chances to win some great prizes. It’ll be a true jam in the sense that everyone will skate their face off and judges will ask for names as they see necessary. The sponsor list is absolutely MASSIVE (23 so far) and could end up being one of the best chances you have to win gear this season. Seriously — there’s that much gear it looks like they’ll be giving away.

UPDATE: Rumor has it that the Landyachtz crew will be in attendance to help assist with not only judging but shredding as well. You’ve undoubtedly seen their YouTube videos and know that when Landy comes to town it’s not something you wanna miss. Speaking of which, if you don’t catch them at this jam you’ll have a several other chances to catch them as they tour the East Coast this spring!

Everything is going to get going at around 10:30am with open skate lasting until 2:30PM. From 2:30PM-3:00PM there’ll be a finals round with a select number of skaters (although they haven’t said how many will move on) followed by awards/give-aways. So far 230 people have RSVP’ed as “Going” on Facebook, while not everyone will go there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the event and I have a feeling we’ll see a very large turnout. Lots of people are coming in from far away, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see 100 or more people on the hill.

There are some rules that the organizers have asked everyone to be super vigilant about, mostly relating to respecting the Czech Embassy so they’ll let more events be hosted there in the future.

Rules:
1. you must dispose of all trash properly. The embassy has been kind enough to let us use the hill, but we CANNOT LEAVE TRASH I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS. WE CANNOT MESS THIS UP FOR THE OTHER EVENTS THAT ARE BEING HELD HERE!
2. spectators will need to be in the middle and bottom areas of the hill. not at the top. the embassador’s driveway is up there and we cannot block it, and NO SKATING ON THE STEEP AREA OF GRASS NEXT TO THE EMBASSY.
3. find parking elsewhere, not on the jam hill, this will ruin the skating
4. dont arrive before 10:00 A.M.
5. Helmets and gloves required to skate in this event

In addition to this being the 2nd Rock Creek Picnic of the year CaliFlorida is getting behind it and helping Marc to organize a Grom Race for riders 16 and under, a concept that I’m stoked to hear about and wish was a bit closer to home. It’s all going down on February 26th and is starting at 11:00AM for those young groms that want to race and should be open to riding for everyone by 1:00PM.

The idea is to allow younger riders to get a taste of organized downhill racing before the season starts on a safe but fun hill with other riders that also have little to no race experience. There’s a $5 buy in for each rider who wants to race which will be split between the top 4 riders of the day in addition to some swag that CaliFlorida has donated, making me wish I were under 16 again.

For those racing 11:00AM is the time to be at Sherril Drive in Rock Creek Park for registration, if you’re not on time you’re not racing so make sure to give yourself a little extra time! After registration there will be enough time for a couple of warm-up/practice runs with heats to follow immediately after. Heats will be normal 4 man heats with the top two racers advancing to the next round. Of course a helmet and gloves are required to race, did you expect otherwise?

The idea is to have the entire race over with by 1:00PM so the normal Picnic and Grab-a-Grom can start. While I’m not exactly sure what Grab-a-Grom we’ll soon find out…For those over 16 come out and support the younger, less experienced riders while they learn the ropes of racing and get ready to skate as usual around 1:00. Over 50 people have already responded to the Facebook Event and I’m sure will gain more attention as the event draws closer.

Sounds like this’ll be another super fun time at Rock Creek Park and a great opener to the race season. For those of you that didn’t get to make it out to the season opener check out the video below — looks like it was a super fun time!

Washington, D.C. riders listen up, Marc Ondrejko is bringing back the Rock Creek Picnics for 2012, and picking up where former organizer, Buono, left off. The idea seems pretty simple, a gathering of like minded skateboarders for afternoon sessions of shredding, spreading stoke, and making new friends. No prizes, formal competition, or anything fancy, just some good old fun get togethers with area skaters.

The event on Facebook says to “leave the alcohol, drugs, and bad attitudes at home,” and to come stoked, sounds like a good time for everyone!If you’re in or around D.C. it sounds like something to hit up for sure! By the looks of it there will be plenty more, especially as the weather gets nicer, so if you can’t make this one keep your eyes peeled for the future.

Meetup is on Sherril Drive in Washington, D.C. (which I’m assuming is also Rock Creek Park but I’m not from the area) at 12:00 noon and should run until at least 4:00PM, or whenever daylight goes away and people can’t skate anymore. For more information hit up the Facebook event which already has a fair amount of people saying their going and a few more listed as maybe.

About the Author:

Mike is the founder and publisher at Skate The East. When not tinkering with the site, shooting and editing videos, or writing articles, Mike takes to the hills of Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut to get his fix of freeride and light DH.